Petropavlovsk votes through second management change in just over a year

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LONDON (Reuters) - The shareholders of Russia’s Petropavlovsk voted on Friday to change the gold miner’s management for the second time in just over a year, with current Chief Executive Roman Deniskin stepping down and a former CEO re-appointed as director.

According to a preliminary assessment of the votes at its annual general meeting, former chief executive Pavel Maslovskiy as well as Roderic Lyne, a former British ambassador to Russia, and Robert Jenkins will be appointed as directors.

Deniskin and several other directors will not be reappointed, however, according to the regulatory filing.

Shareholders last June ousted company founder Peter Hambro from the role of chairman. Co-founder and CEO Maslovskiy chose to step down.

Months later, the original activist shareholder sold out and new ones - CABS Platform and Slevin, supported by Kazakh entrepreneur Kenges Rakishev - began demanding the return of Maslovskiy as CEO.

Petropavlovsk’s share price has collapsed from highs in 2008, although it has rallied from the trough of 2015-16 when commodity markets crashed. On Friday at 1328 GMT, it was trading up 1.63 percent at 8.13 pence.

The change in management comes as the company works to capitalize on a long-running project to allow the treatment of refractory gold ore that is difficult to process using traditional methods.